


storming the castle

by ByTheAngell (SomeLittleInfamy)



Series: Tumblr Prompts [48]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, POV Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern | Sebastian Verlac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 17:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18554224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SomeLittleInfamy/pseuds/ByTheAngell
Summary: Clary admires her handy work for a moment before looking up at Jonathan through her lashes first, then lifting her head to meet his gaze firmly. He can see it in her eyes the moment they lock - he can feel it.Lanaia hadn’t be there to save him, but Clary is.





	storming the castle

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Jonathan prompt from 3x18-------his feels and thoughts when Dark!Clary comes to rescue him (with special detail to her killing the Seelie nymph) :)

The warning siren begins to sound throughout the Institute above, but the noise is muffled in the basement, buried away below layers of concrete. Lights flash but he doesn’t see - doesn’t open his eyes or lift his head to look. It isn’t his concern who the Shadowhunters have pissed off this time, and there’s nothing he can do about it locked up down here, anyway. The thought that someone was here for him never crosses his mind.

Not until the door to his left creeks open and he slowly raises his head to see Lanaia. 

“Lanaia.” The name almost sounds as a question, unable to believe his eyes. And he doesn’t, not yet - this could just be some elaborate trick, a glamour, or perhaps a warlock hired to mess with him. As if the physical torment of being bound and experimented on in attempts to remove the rune he shares with Clary weren’t enough, perhaps they deemed psychological torture necessary as well, Accords be damned. “You’re here.” 

She stands in front of him, smiling. He smiles back, the faintest flicker of hope springing to life within him. He’s made that mistake before, too recently to repeat without hesitation. “I underestimated your loyalty,” he says, though he isn’t sure why. Recalling how eager she was to play the role of Clary time and time again, to get it right the next time, to do  _ better _ … how quickly she worked to allow him an audience with the Seelie Queen… she’d done nothing for him to doubt her. 

“My loyalty is to the Seelie Queen.” She states, and for a moment it doesn’t register. Perhaps she’s only saving him so he can carry out the Queen’s wishes for him to deliver Lilith’s head on a platter. Fair enough, even if it isn’t the sort of devotion he hoped to see from her. But then she takes a step back and assumes the stance of a trained warrior, the spear in her hand aimed at his neck, and he understands perfectly.  

“She wants you dead.” 

Lanaia isn’t here to free him. She’s there to kill him. 

With no guards, no Shadowhunters at all in sight, he barely has time to register the fear in his heart over what will happen next. There’s no time to beg, no use for it - he knows how deep Seelie loyalties run, the fate that would await her should she not carry out the task set to her. And with his arms and legs chained there’s nothing he can do to protect himself. He survived being raise as Valentine’s experiment, he survived years of torture in Edom at Lilith’s hand, he survived being hunted down and stabbed and left for dead, only to be resurrected by the blood bond of his sister… 

...and now he’s going to die chained up like an animal at the hands of this Seelie bitch, and after his attempt on Lilith’s life she would not be inclined to save him this time around. 

Jonathan is looking into the eyes of the woman who would be the end of him once and for all. He raises a silent plea to Clary, wondering if she’ll be able to sense him through their bond - to feel the urgency he feels, the fear, the panic. _I’m sorry, little sister. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I’m sorry I won’t be there for you._ _I’m sorry I couldn’t get us the glory we both deserve, the glory owed to us as Morgensterns._ They’re his final thoughts as Lanaia readies herself. 

And then there’s a golden yellow light behind her, a swirling oval of angelic magic through which Clary emerges. He sees her but she doesn’t see him - instead, her focus is wholly on Lanaia. Clary moves so fast Jonathan hardly registers the glint of the weapon in her hands until it’s already cleared through Lanaia’s neck. If he blinked he would’ve missed it. But he doesn’t blink. He can’t take his eyes off of Clary, off of the determination on her features, the singular, unwavering focus of her action. 

He doesn’t mean to but he reacts instinctively, crying out in surprise, backing up as far as he can to avoid the green liquid that expels from her neck as Clary cuts through it in one swift movement, blade held in her left hand now dripping in blood. It’s instantaneous - Lanaia’s head falls to the side while her body goes the other direction, collapsing to the floor, lifeless. There is no sympathy in Clary’s eyes - and why should there be? She didn’t even give the poor girl a chance to run or defend herself. It’s a side of Clary he’s only witnessed in flashes, but this time it isn’t gone as quickly as it comes. It lingers. 

_ She _ lingers. 

For a moment he braces himself, eyes not daring to look down at the dead Seelie at his feet in fear of what Clary will do next. Would she sacrifice herself to kill him, like those who love her are so unable to do? Does she detest him as much as she claimed in the past that she would save his life from Lanaia’s hands only to take it by her own? 

Clary admires her handy work for a moment before looking up at him through her lashes first, then lifting her head to meet his gaze firmly. He can see it in her eyes the moment they lock - he can feel it.

Lanaia hadn’t be there to save him, but Clary  _ is _ . 

He knows because there’s a smile on her face, a look of self-satisfaction at the work done to prevent the Seelie from ending his life. Clary doesn’t flinch. She isn’t out of breath, or even mildly concerned for the violence she wrought. She stands in front of him the very picture of ferocity. Pitiless. Merciless. 

This is the Clary he longed to see before. The one silenced by Jace and the others. The one kept from her calling, from reaching her fullest potential, under the guise of ‘protection’.    
  
It’s over in the blink of an eye and yet the moment seems to hang in front of him for minutes, hours, while his brain wraps itself around the Clary who was so intent on removing their binding mark just hours ago, and the woman in front of him with narrowed eyes and smirking lips. 

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, Big Brother.” There’s a determination to her words. It’s more than just a reassurance, it’s a promise. 

He almost can’t believe it, but he does. He has to, because if she isn’t here to save him then he truly has no one left, and he can’t accept that fact. Not after everything he’s been through to prove himself to Clary and win her over.

The surprise wanes and he leans forward against his chains, watching as Clary pulls out her stele and steps close to him, closer than she had before with Jace and the others hovering behind her. She’s alone. Vulnerable. But she isn’t afraid. 

She isn’t afraid because she’s with him now. 

“You came for me.” 

Clary walks closer, moves to free him from these chains, from this room. And with it he can free her from the confinement of the limited future she has here among the Shadowhunters. Her potential is wasted here, their legacy left to rot in favor of antiquated rules and regulations and prejudices.  Lilith was wrong… he could be loved, and he could be saved.  
  
He is both in this moment. 

He called and she came, knowing from miles away that he was in danger. They’re joined now, one mind, one soul, properly united in the way they were always meant to be. He called out to her in his time of need and she gave herself over to him completely. 

His princess. 

**Author's Note:**

> (Find me on [Tumblr](http://bytheangell.tumblr.com) and also on [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/By_The_Angell) while we all hang out waiting for someone to #SaveShadowhunters ! <3)


End file.
